Jan Groover (April 24, 1943 – January 1, 2012) was an American photographer, born in Plainfield, New Jersey. Groover received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1965 from Pratt Institute, and a Master of Arts in 1970 from Ohio State University. Groover was well known for her use of colour technologies. In 1979, Groover began using platinum prints for portraits and still lifes, changing everyday objects into formal still lifes. Her photography has a Renaissance and a postmodern style. In the 1970s Groover photographed everyday utensils in the kitchen, arranging them in the sink, fork points, spatulas, butter knife blades and cake pans. Groover’s style of photography questions perspective and transforms light into an object itself, within the reflective surfaces. Her images are reproduced documents of feminism and investigations of the myths inseparable from the rules of photography.
In 1987, critic Andy Grundberg notes in the New York Times: “In 1978, an exhibition of her dramatic still life photographs of objects in her kitchen sink caused a sensation. When one appeared on the cover of Artforum magazine, it was a signal that photography had arrived in the art world – complete with a marketplace to support it.” Groover used 20th century camera technology, for advantages in elongated, horizontal photographs of different mundane objects. Critic Roberta Miller called Groover’s work: “beautiful and masterly in the extreme.”